BOOK REVIEW
Book Title: Mindful Project Management: Resilient Performance beyond the Risk Horizon
Author: Elmar Kutsch and Mark Hall
Publisher: Routledge
List Price: $42.95
Format: Softcover, 262 Pages 31 B/W Illustrations
Publication Date: 2021
ISBN: 9780367497484
Reviewer: Maria G. Davies, PMP
Review Date: February 2023
Introduction
This is a structured read presenting a thoughtful viewpoint on epistemic uncertainty and complexity impacting nearly every project. It provides a guide to a mindset that promotes resiliency and a vantage point that spans beyond traditional project management. This book creates a safe space for out-of-the-box thinking examining projects beyond the risk horizon giving solutions with tangible application in the real world.
Overview of Book’s Structure
The book is broken up into 8 chapters, ascending from outlining the challenge of epistemic uncertainty and moving into the aptly titled modalities that promote resolution thinking backed up by qualitative data. Case studies from The Technology Partnership Group formed in 1987 are referenced throughout the book, where mindful project management aptitudes are considered. Nearly every chapter closes with a reflection questionnaire that could be added to any project manager’s repertoire. Chapters 3 and 7 are specifically formatted, each with four main sections that discuss the ‘lures’ that make mindful project management difficult.
Highlights
Reading Mindful Project Management is like reading a well-organized term paper that isn’t boring or prescriptive. Waves of validation continued to rise up throughout the course of this read with several references that hit close to home. I was connected to a thinking process promoting behaviors easily utilized in daily practice as a project manager but also provided new tools in ensuring big picture thinking and how uncertainty may be a challenge but is also a possible opportunity. In this book project managers are empowered to exercise flexibility as a routine and ask mindful PMs to represent specific stakeholders and overall project ownership instead of merely delegating to the experts.
Highlights: What I liked!
I enjoyed the sentiment of challenging traditional project management, especially in a world where the institution of project management seems to be challenged at every turn. The skill sets outlined are referred to as different Arts within mindful project management marrying the fact that project management is both an art and science. The book encourages the identification of uncertainty and does so as a positive approach instead of something to be feared. The authors make cautionary statements to serve as a gentle reminder that commonly accepted standards may heed subpar project outcomes and ask us to go above and beyond in our thinking.
One of many cautions provided will resonate with many project managers, as it states that project estimates can easily become commitments and reminds us of the importance of utilizing outside persons that are structurally and emotionally detached from the project to assist in better decision making. While not always an easy road to go down, it is important that project managers are transparent and careful when communicating what a project can and cannot deliver.
More…
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How to cite this work: Davies, M. G. (2023). Mindful Project Management, book review, PM World Journal, Vol. XII, Issue III, March. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/pmwj127-Mar2023-Davies-mindful-project-management-book-review.pdf
About the Reviewer
Maria G. Davies, PMP
McKinney TX, USA
Maria G. Davies is a Project Management Professional (PMP) with experience in Technology Project Management across industries in healthcare and financial institutions. Her successes lie in the relationships she forges with her project teams and stakeholders. Maria is a native Texan and is a member of the PMI Dallas Chapter. She can be contacted at davies.g.maria@gmail.com.
Editor’s note: This book review was the result of a partnership between the PM World Journal and the PMI Dallas Chapter. Authors and publishers provide books to the PM World Journal; books are delivered to the PMI Dallas Chapter, where they are offered free to PMI members who agree to provide a review within 45 days; book reviews are published in the PM World Journal and PM World Library.
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